The Lost Wolves Of India

Pic: Dharmendra Khandal

Sidelined by the glamour of tiger conservation, the ancestor of man's best friend is fighting a losing battle

Rome wasn’t built in a day. And maybe, a wolf had something to do with it. Legend has it that Rome’s twin founders, Romulus and Remus, were thrown into the Tiber river by their uncle Amulius and left to die. But a she-wolf thought otherwise and rescued them. The bronze sculpture of the wolf, Capitoline Wolf, has been housed in one of the Capitoline Museums in Rome since 1473 and is a hot tourist attraction. But closer home, the ancestor of man’s best friend is in deep trouble.

The Indian wolf is a highly endangered animal. Only 2,000 are estimated to be alive, according to studies. And the number is dwindling. Says Asad Rehmani, director, Bombay Natural History Society: “The Indian wolf is perhaps more endangered than the tiger as no attention given to its habitat, which is dry thorn forest, low-intensity agricultural land with broken hills, undulating grassland and scrubland with good natural prey base. It is a neglected species and dying slowly as the glamour and politics of tiger conservation takes over the conservation movement of India”. Wolves are shot, poisoned and their young ones smoked out and killed.

This is considered to be unfortunate by wildlife conservationists since the Indian wolf is the apex predator of the Indian desert and grasslands, in other words, unprotected areas. It is to these areas what the tiger is to the forest. It is found mainly in Bihar, UP, MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, AP, Karnataka and Gujarat. Its main role is to keep the population of ungulates (hoofed animals) down to reasonable numbers.

Studies conducted by Y Jhala of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, have proved that the wolf of the world originated from the Indian wolf. Conservationists believe this is reason enough to save the species. Ironically, the Indian wolf is protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

Cornered by habitat depletion, wolves are being killed as a vermin and menace. And this sad story began in 1878 when 624 people were reportedly killed by wolves in UP. During the same period in Bengal, 14 others were killed. Slowly, the wolf earned the notorious nickname “child-lifter”. In 1995, wolves attacked 80 children in Bihar, of which 20 were rescued.

“The biggest problem is that there is no scheme to compensate shepherds and farmers when their livestock is killed by a wolf, as we see in tiger areas,” says Jhala.

The solution lies in development of a compensation scheme for any damage caused by the wolf, protection of grasslands, long-term study on wolf ecology and biology through radio-tracking, genetic studies, protection of dry deciduous forests of Kutch and some districts of Saurashtra in Gujarat, protection of grasslands beeds in Saurashtra and rakhals in Kutch (grasslands are called bheeds or beeds in Saurashtra, western Madhya Pradesh and eastern Rajasthan, and rakhals in Kutch). Says Dharmendra Khandal, a conservation biologist based out of Ranthambore: “These can serve as denning areas for the wolf and they can breed there in peace. 

Khandal has been tracking wolves for quite some time now. “Money is not enough to be able to see a wolf in the wild. You need the endurance to rough it out in the wild as they are not found easily in national parks,” he says.

Well, that is what real wildlife is all about, isn't it? Just don't carry silver bullets.